HMD upgrade

[Banfield Design] has put together this instructable on how to upgrade or re build a head mounted display to be more immersive and add features. Though you can already buy glasses style viewers for your media devices, they can use some upgrades. For one, you have to supply your own sound, and putting headphones on, over bulky glasses can be painful on your ears. Another area that could use improvement is the light that comes in around the glasses. The current trend is to make them as small as possible, but that tends to let your peripheral vision see the outside world. [Banfield design] wanted to make them more immersive, so he built them into some ski goggles. This not only helped block the light, but allowed for an over the ear style headphone assembly which is much easier on the ears.

A functional improvement came next, by adding a webcam front and center. He could now switch between a live feed of his environment and whatever other inputs he wanted. This could be really fun with some augmented reality. He has a list of future improvements, but he doesn’t mention adding a second camera for stereoscopic viewing of his surroundings. Why would you do that? because it would make augmented reality much cooler.

Nik Karpinsky: The model he used is the MyVu Crystal which can’t do separate images per screen. But there’s nothing stopping you from using an HMD that /can/ do stereo 3D (Look at the Vuzix HMDs for that, but might be cheaper just to buy the Vuzix Wrap 920AR when they come out, which is basically what you’re describing.)

There’s only one reason to have this setup, to watch Doctor Steel shows in 3D (when you get that working) because Doctor Steel is so awesome that only in 3D is he given the respect he deserves (well, he gave up on getting 7D registered properly by our minds yonks ago).

I built something very similar. I made two versions one in a Darth Vador mask and one in one of those cheap VR helmets with crappy games. I installed IR LEDs so that I could see in the dark when switched over to my security camera mounted in the nose of Vador. In both I used the battery housings for any/all components added.

The focusing can be handled by hacking cell phone displays and using vidio screen sizing. The head set can be changed to a helmet with build in speakers with a bite on control to reverse use the speaker as a mike set when speaking. rear view can be a second are some display be hacking the cam from a old cell phone. Input can be taken from the computer screen directly or indirectly.
Can be used by people who need glasses by controling the focus of the display. Can get help from other people with ideals to put it in to play, test, pat, and sell.
Me Banks